


Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder (or at least clarifies a few things)

by rhysiana



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: (not that they're into labels or anything), Between Canon Scenes, F/M, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-08 20:48:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12261804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhysiana/pseuds/rhysiana
Summary: Graduation came. Lardo cheered as loud as she could with Ransom and Holster to help cover up Shitty's real name when he walked the stage, gave him a solid hug that only left avery smallwet spot on his stupid graduation robes, and watched his stuck-up relatives whisk him away to some big family to-do on the Cape that meant she wouldn’t be able to hear from him for at least a week, minimum. Then she went home, acknowledged she was going to miss Shitty to an excessive degree, and told herself to deal with it. This week would be good training for the next year. This was how life was going to be now. And that wasfine.





	Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder (or at least clarifies a few things)

**Author's Note:**

> In which certain parts of this story may or may not be based on real-life events.

She’d been dealing with the end of the year just fine… mostly by not thinking about it, but whatever. It was fine. She’d survived looking at all of Jack’s photos for his photography final, and all of Shitty’s thesis pages raining down on them in the kitchen, and she’d even cut off his flow, all without shedding a (public) tear. She was _fine_.

But now it was graduation and she couldn’t avoid thinking about it anymore. They were really leaving. They really wouldn’t be in the Haus next year. No Jack to do homework with in a silence totally played up to annoy everyone else. No Shitty to… No Shitty. She’d be living in his room, but he wouldn’t be there. No ranting at her aimlessly in the background while she painted, no bringing her coffee and helping her bedazzle shit at 4am, no pulling her into random hugs just when she needed it but didn’t know how to (could never) ask. She’d seen him pretty much every single day for the past five months, and the idea of not seeing him at all for an indeterminate amount of time starting tomorrow was starting to get to her.

She’d tried to tell herself that it wouldn’t be that bad. Last summer had been no problem. But Shitty’d shown up randomly at her house just a few days into break, and they’d sent each other stupid texts all the time, and he’d come to sit on her suitcase when she’d finished packing for Kenya. And then she’d been distracted by _Kenya_ , of course. Plus she knew she’d see him when she got back.

Somewhere along the way, Shitty had become an immutable fact of her life, but now, suddenly, the immutable had become mutable, and her world felt all off-kilter. She didn’t like it.

She sucked it up, cheered as loud as she could with Ransom and Holster to help cover up his real name when he walked the stage, gave him a solid hug that only left a _very small_ wet spot on his stupid graduation robes, and watched his stuck-up relatives whisk him away to some big family to-do on the Cape that meant she wouldn’t be able to hear from him for at least a week, minimum.

She didn’t know why the thought made her feel so unmoored. They weren’t like that, the two of them, they weren’t. All the same, she felt something warm and possessive in her chest when he cast one last glance over his shoulder as he got in the car and caught her eye with an expression of exaggerated despair.

***

She went home, acknowledged she was going to miss Shitty to an excessive degree, and told herself to deal with it. This week would be good training for the next year. This was how life was going to be now. And that was fine. It was normal. They were friends, and this was how friends were after college. (Ransom and Holster excepted, undoubtedly.)

By day three, things were starting to feel normal again. She kept thinking of things she wanted to tell him and then reminding herself that she couldn’t, she’d just have to wait until he could actually talk, but it was starting to feel like a new normal. She felt like she could breathe again.

Her phone rang.

She answered it barely into the second ring, already out of the living room and heading up the stairs to her own room, just in case. “How are you calling me? I didn’t expect to hear from you until next week. You’re with your _family_.” She knew she sounded accusing, but she was so damned relieved, she couldn’t help it.

“No, I know,” Shitty said, and she could hear wind across the microphone. “I’m taking a walk. I had to get out of the house. God,” he sighed, “it’s good to hear your voice. I fucking missed you.”

And just like that, her world evened out again. That warm thing in her chest expanded outward, and she was really glad she was in her room with the door closed because she was smiling too much, and she still didn’t know what they were, she and Shitty, but it didn’t matter, because whatever they were, he couldn’t go a full three days without talking to her either.

Later, she could never remember what they talked about, just that he walked and talked to her for so long that one of his grandparents’ snooty summer neighbors called the cops on the suspicious bum loitering in the streets and she had to muffle her giggles while listening to him try to explain that, yes, he really was a Knight, one of _those_ Knights, to a cop without cursing.

“Shouldn’t have worn your cutoffs,” she said when the cop let him go with an irritated suggestion that he try to look less shady in the future.

“They already took my flow!” he protested indignantly, and in her mind she could see him running a hand through his remaining hair in illustrative frustration. “I have to draw the line some-fucking-where, brah.” And he stayed on the line, spouting his comforting brand of everything and nothing into her ear, until he got all the way back to his grandparents’ house. “Hey, Lards, I gotta go,” he said softly, like he didn’t want any of them to have any part of her.

“I know,” she said. “Talk to you again soon.” Which she hadn’t thought possible two hours ago, but knew with utter certainty now.

“Yeah. I—um. Yeah. Bye.”

“Bye.”

She hung up and knew she probably loved him. The thought wasn’t as scary as she’d always thought it would be. She didn’t really know what to do with it yet, but that really didn’t seem important. This was enough for now.

**Author's Note:**

> I [tumbl](https://rhysiana.tumblr.com).


End file.
